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Global Attributes

Basic info about the data from the existing CF conventions should be included

What the data is

How the data was created

Who created it

When it was created

Why? .... because!

Unstructed Conventions to add to the existing Global Attributes

A standard name for our convetions

CFUnstructured1.0 -- please edit me''

Idealized case OR a Real world simulation

Is time reference to a real date?

Is location georeferenced?

A list of mesh objects in the file

Mesh A

Mesh B

This should be the name of the connectivity variable

Discussion

Standard Convention name

This global attribute will be usefull as a way to examine a file and quickly determine what to expect inside and how to read it.

Idealized case OR a Real world simulation

Including this in the global attributes provides more basic info about what to expect inside the file. This would tell the app/api whether to expect to find projection data, the type of coordinates (for instance: lat/lon vs meters), zero time reference information and other kinds of data that don't exist in a idealized model data set.

A list of mesh objects in the file

Listing the names of the mesh variables in the file as part of the Global Attributes would provide a way to simplify reading netCDF3.X files which do not have groups. In netCDF 4.X this would probably not be neccissary but here it will be helpfull to know from reading a set of standard global attributes what mesh objects to expect to find in the file. This will make standardizing the apps/api's which work the the files much easier. The mesh name provided should be the name of the connectivity variable for that mesh. This name should also be an attribute of any variable which belongs to that mesh.